Officially an Uber driver!

I’m not a very good hourly employee because companies limit me to working a mere 40 hours a week.

I guess you could say that I’m not a very good 40-hour-a-week employee either.

Thus, since Amazon will only schedule me for a maximum of 40 hours a week, and no more than 5 days a week, that leaves a lot of time over the course of the week to do other things. So……….

As of today, I’m officially an Uber driver!

The only thing I could ever think of regarding Uber was drivers picking up the drunks at midnight. I was pretty sure I didn’t want to do that. When upper-management executives, such as Benjamin Golden of Taco Bell, go into a drunken rage and attack the Uber driver (see Benjamin Golden attacks Uber driver), well, that’s not something that I want to be part of.

However, after talking to some co-workers at Amazon, I thought, “I don’t have to work at the midnight bewitching hour….”

This morning, I made myself available to Uber at 7:00 a.m. just to see what would happen. Almost immediately I had a rider, and as soon as I dropped that rider off, I had another rider. In the course of 32 minutes and 24 miles, I made $14.00. Not a lot, but my Excel spreadsheet tells me that is $26.25 per hour, more than Amazon pays…. My 2015 Toyota Corolla LE Plus gets 35 miles per gallon, and gas right now is $2.659 per gallon, so my expenses there were a mere $1.82, leaving me with a net after expenses but before taxes of $12.18. I can handle that.

After reading more this morning of the Uber documents, tips, and tricks for being a successful Uber driver, apparently I am in a pretty good location. Within a five-mile radius of where Jim and I live are:

Major medical center.
Two major malls.
Two major downtown areas.
Three Walmarts—a super store, a neighborhood market, and a regular Walmart.
A major university with 35,000 students.

I’m going to make myself available to Uber each morning from 6:00 a.m. to noon for a week and see what happens, just how busy I can be and how much money I can make. I’m not anticipating many drunken idiots between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and noon so Benjamin Goldens shouldn’t be a problem….

27 thoughts on “Officially an Uber driver!”

Which is why I’m not going to be hanging around with taxi drivers. In fact, the places they hang around are the type of places I don’t want to go. Since there are no taxis here in my five-mile radius, I suspect I won’t have a problem.

Curious ow it works out for you. You do seem to be situated in a good spot. (How about driving until 2 in the afternoon – before public schools lets out though. You know how doctor’s office visits always run late?) People around Houston use Uber a lot.
You should make a great driver as you know so much about the place. Conferences should be good for you.
Please be careful. (You saw the 4th resident/doctor that went ballistic in Florida? After 2-3 days without sleep being on call those little docs get cranky?)
Will be looking forward to your update – and the stories you gather

Omgosh Russel! That’s so awesome. I’ve seen the Shameful Taco Bell guy and the fact that he went viral on his bad behaviour was just so fitting.
There’s giant disputes between Taxi companies and Uber in Canada right now. It’s a long story and hopefully, cab drivers will find an incentive to provide friendly, fast and affordable service too. They’re in Edmonton but I very seldom need a cab since we live downtown. There also was a story of a 1,600 dollar cab fare on New Years Eve that ruffled some feathers. I guess the customer didn’t due diligence before ordering the ride. Gah!
Good luck with it! Cheers!

The nice thing about Uber is that the customer gets an estimate before ever booking the ride. If s/he thinks the price is too high, s/he can go elsewhere. I never liked taxis because they were always much more than what I calculated they should be, and I’m pretty good with maps, Excel, and mathematics………..

Sounds like a great little money-spinner, as and when you fancy working! I suddenly fancied trying it when I read this, but then thoughts of insuring my car for commercial use and paying for a Criminal Records Bureau certificate suddenly made it a lot less appealing 🙂

My insurance company says that I don’t have to insure my car for commercial use, and Uber pays for all the background check stuffy. The cool thing about the background check is that I now know I’m not a murder, bank robber, convict, rapist, pillager, pedophile, kidnapper……………..LOL

Thirty-three minutes this morning, three riders, $16.09. Not a bad rate of pay and I think I might have made a couple of new friends, a gay couple from Portland OR celebrating their 5th anniversary together here in San Diego.

P.S. The reason why one doesn’t need to convert to commercial insurance is because, during the time that you have a passenger, Uber provides extraordinary insurance on you, you passenger, and your vehicle. When you don’t have a passenger, your own insurance is in force, and it’s not near as good as what Uber provides when you have a passenger. It’s almost worthwhile to pick up a passenger and then, somehow, have an accident……….LOL